Design of Skids and Foundations

A well designed skid and foundation would result help to mitigate potential vibration issues. In particular, machinery well founded has a low probability to fail due to breakage of small accessories or ancillary equipment ill fitted for vibration service. The skid also fills an important function for the transportation of the process equipment as a unit to the site and consequent savings in field construction costs.

We have the capability and the expertise to:
• Assess the design of a particular compressor/pump skid with regard to its structural adequacy for transporting and lifting;
• Determine the static, dynamic, and combined loadings of skid support piles imposed by the entire package weight, the unbalanced compressor/pump shaking loads, plus wind, and seismic loads, and
• To recommend skid design modifications and improvements based on static and dynamic analysis results

Methodology:
The skid beams, gussets, top plates, and lift lugs are modeled in detail, whereas concrete, motor, compressor/pump mass and stiffness are represented as needed to give the model the correct dynamic behavior. The skid piles are also modeled as well as the details of motor and compressor/pump mounts.

The FEA models are used for several static analyses including: determination of maximum stresses and deflections caused by lifting the entire package during the lifting operation and transport, calculation of dead loads at each pile or anchoring point subjected to the full package weight, calculation of static loading of each skid pile subjected to the design wind pressure and loading of each skid pile subjected to seismic loads

Dynamic force-response analyses are set-up and performed to: determine the dynamic response of the skid and the dynamic loading of each skid pile or anchoring point due to the unbalanced shaking loads produced by the compressor/motor gear train and the acoustic pulsations of the piping system.

Dynamic properties and movement of the compressor/pump frame is determined and design changes are analyzed whenever dynamic displacements exceed guidelines.

Deliverables
•A complete report with detailed descriptions of design changes and recommendations, stresses and deflections expected during lifting and transportation, static/dynamic loads on piles/anchors, MNFs and dynamic properties of the skid-equipment ensemble under operating conditions.